Archinect - News2015-08-02T20:47:29-04:00http://archinect.com/news/article/131511155/egypt-s-urban-growth-threatens-nile-farmland
Egypt's urban growth threatens Nile farmland Alexander Walter2015-07-09T21:30:00-04:00>2015-07-09T21:15:42-04:00<img src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/514x/kt/ktm70w1ygvwtdn0y.jpg" width="514" height="404" border="0" title="" alt="" /><em><p>Most Egyptians have always lived in the fertile stretch along the Nile, the nation&rsquo;s breadbasket which accounts for less than 10 per cent of Egypt&rsquo;s territory. But urban growth has become the chief threat to agricultural land as farmers haphazardly &ndash; and illegally &ndash; build new houses to make room for the next generation.
Construction surged even more amid a security vacuum that followed the 2011 popular uprising that ousted the country&rsquo;s long-time autocrat, Hosni Mubarak.</p></em><br /><br /><p>Related:</p><ul><li><a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/118984560/photographer-documents-egypt-s-monumental-housing-developments-in-the-desert" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Photographer documents Egypt's monumental housing developments in the desert</a></li><li><a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/123673983/a-new-capital-for-cairo" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">A New "Capital" for Cairo?</a></li><li><a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/119351406/a-closer-look-at-the-giza-2030-master-plan-blessing-or-curse-for-egypt" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">A closer look at the Giza 2030 master plan: blessing or curse for Egypt?</a></li></ul>http://archinect.com/news/article/123662711/urban-sprawl-costs-the-american-economy-more-than-us-1-trillion-per-year
Urban sprawl costs the American economy more than US$1 trillion per year Alexander Walter2015-03-24T14:05:00-04:00>2015-04-04T22:36:40-04:00<img src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/514x/yy/yywt5dvbr7yctaue.jpg" width="514" height="489" border="0" title="" alt="" /><em><p>A new analysis authored by Todd Litman at the Victoria Transport Policy Institute concludes that sprawl costs the U.S. economy more than $1 trillion every year. [...]
The optimal density Litman uses in the report is only about 23 people per hectare. Add those 2.2 billion people to global cities at a density of about Atlanta, and we'd need the equivalent of all the land in India to accommodate them.</p></em><br /><br /><p>Previously:&nbsp;<a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/122203711/the-true-costs-of-sprawl" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The true costs of sprawl</a></p><p>Here's a direct link&nbsp;to Todd Litman's study <em><a href="http://static.newclimateeconomy.report/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/public-policies-encourage-sprawl-nce-report.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Analysis of Public Policies that Unintentionally Encourage and Subsidize Sprawl</a></em>.</p>http://archinect.com/news/article/122203711/the-true-costs-of-sprawl
The true costs of sprawl Alexander Walter2015-03-05T14:04:00-05:00>2015-03-09T10:53:58-04:00<img src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/514x/vc/vc8wt8ung7gzvspo.jpg" width="514" height="423" border="0" title="" alt="" /><em><p>How much more does it cost the public to build infrastructure and provide services for sprawling development compared to more compact neighborhoods? A lot more, according to this handy summary from the Canadian environmental think tank&nbsp;Sustainable Prosperity.
To create this graphic, the organization synthesized a study by the Halifax Regional Municipality [PDF] in Nova Scotia, and the research is worth a closer look.</p></em><br /><br /><!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
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http://archinect.com/news/article/120975774/new-study-finds-that-los-angeles-is-actually-the-nation-s-least-sprawling-metro
New study finds that Los Angeles is actually the nation's least sprawling metro Alexander Walter2015-02-17T15:37:00-05:00>2015-02-19T21:08:51-05:00<img src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/514x/er/erl6rf24cy6cq3xt.jpg" width="514" height="353" border="0" title="" alt="" /><em><p>A new study by Thomas Laidley, a sociology doctoral student at NYU [...], uses satellite images to develop a new and improved &ldquo;Sprawl Index,&rdquo; which he links to a wide range of outcome measures.
Perhaps the biggest surprise is that L.A. ranks as the least sprawling metro in the country, ahead of New York and San Francisco.</p></em><br /><br /><p>Previously:</p><ul><li><p><a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/97119254/southern-california-not-so-sprawling-after-all" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Southern California not so sprawling after all</a></p></li><li><p><a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/101093240/the-u-s-cities-that-sprawled-the-most-and-least-between-2000-and-2010" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The U.S. Cities That Sprawled the Most (and Least) Between 2000 and 2010</a></p></li></ul>http://archinect.com/news/article/111504452/atlanta-plans-big-for-bikes-and-atlantans-turn-out-big-time
Atlanta plans big for bikes, and Atlantans turn out big time Alexander Walter2014-10-17T18:13:00-04:00>2014-10-21T23:25:47-04:00<img src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/514x/cb/cbbe99a87424a62e808801fed41f0280.jpg" width="514" height="270" border="0" title="" alt="" /><em><p>The massive Beltline and an impressive grid of protected lanes that will connect the trail system to key urban destinations are poised to remake transportation in the city that anchors the country's ninth-largest metro area. [...]
As the video above shows, Atlanta's embrace of active space is part of a psychic shift in a city that's shaking off its old Sprawlville USA image with a combination of bike, transit and affordable housing infrastructure.</p></em><br /><br /><p>Similar bike-friendly development is underway in the South's <em>other </em>notorious mega sprawl metro area, Houston: <a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/105248171/the-bayou-greenways-plan-a-game-changer-for-houston" target="_blank">The Bayou Greenways Plan: A Game-Changer for Houston?</a></p>http://archinect.com/news/article/109722333/seven-myths-about-new-urbanism
Seven Myths About New Urbanism Alexander Walter2014-09-24T15:21:00-04:00>2014-09-24T19:31:17-04:00<img src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/514x/fi/fi93eax346528oo0.jpg" width="514" height="343" border="0" title="" alt="" /><em><p>Joel Kotkin, a fellow at Chapman University and an untiring defender of the suburbs, begins a recent column in the Washington Post with a valid question: &ldquo;What is a city for?&rdquo; He then proceeds to get that question completely wrong. But really, we should be thanking him. In his article, he neatly sums up many of the key myths emerging from the anti-urbanism set, making my job of debunking these myths a lot easier.</p></em><br /><br /><p>The aforementioned WP column already managed to spark a lively discussion last month <a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/106633556/the-people-designing-your-cities-don-t-care-what-you-want-they-re-planning-for-hipsters" target="_blank">here on Archinect</a>.</p>http://archinect.com/news/article/108101742/wowza-scale-maps-of-barcelona-and-atlanta-show-the-waste-of-sprawl
Wowza: Scale Maps of Barcelona and Atlanta Show the Waste of Sprawl Alexander Walter2014-09-03T14:49:00-04:00>2014-09-10T17:26:51-04:00<img src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/514x/f1/f175888f16ed8c4fd83ca75be0b548a0.jpg" width="514" height="416" border="0" title="" alt="" /><em><p>Urban densities are not trivial, they severely limit the transport mode choice and change only very slowly. Because of the large differences in densities between Atlanta and Barcelona about the same length of metro line is accessible to 60% of the population in Barcelona but only 4% in Atlanta. The low density of Atlanta render this city improper for rail transit.</p></em><br /><br /><!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
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http://archinect.com/news/article/107480758/why-haven-t-china-s-cities-learned-from-america-s-mistakes
Why haven't China's cities learned from America's mistakes? Alexander Walter2014-08-26T13:43:00-04:00>2014-09-03T23:18:11-04:00<img src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/514x/8e/8e5c23594fcc3e06cecd76188cbde600.jpg" width="460" height="276" border="0" title="" alt="" /><em><p>In the wake of economic reforms in the 1990s that helped set off the largest urban migration in history, China had the rare opportunity to embrace cutting-edge city-building approaches as it expanded its skyline. It could have avoided the mistakes that made Los Angeles into the land of gridlock, or bypassed the errors that turned the banlieues of Paris into what one American planner calls &ldquo;festering urban sores&rdquo;.
But China looked back instead of forward.</p></em><br /><br /><p>Meanwhile in Africa: <a href="http://archinect.com/news/article/106017728/urban-china-chinese-urbanism-in-africa" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Urban China: Chinese Urbanism in Africa</a></p>http://archinect.com/news/article/106795640/why-sprawl-may-be-bad-for-your-health
Why sprawl may be bad for your health Archinect2014-08-17T16:06:00-04:00>2014-08-28T10:17:32-04:00<img src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/514x/7a/7a2c7f6582f06aca03ff73fde4204f96.jpg" width="514" height="386" border="0" title="" alt="" /><em><p>Marshall, Garrick and Piatkowski are talking about a different set of health concerns: not communicable diseases like cholera, but lifestyle diseases like diabetes. "The literature suggests," they write, "that the shift in industrialized nations toward a more sedentary lifestyle is linked to increasingly auto-dependent lifestyles, which in turn is linked to lower density developments and auto-friendly land uses." Maybe we're designing places, in other words, that make it harder to be active.</p></em><br /><br /><!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
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http://archinect.com/news/article/101093240/the-u-s-cities-that-sprawled-the-most-and-least-between-2000-and-2010
The U.S. Cities That Sprawled the Most (and Least) Between 2000 and 2010 Alexander Walter2014-06-04T14:15:00-04:00>2014-06-10T19:22:49-04:00<img src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/514x/b0/b06ed7ea2ede28f5ba8e46910dc1cf89.jpg" width="514" height="322" border="0" title="" alt="" /><em><p>A new report from Reid Ewing and Shima Hamidi of the University of Utah, lead researchers on the aforementioned rankings, gets at that question. Ewing and Hamidi scored the largest 162 U.S. urbanized areas on the Sprawl Index &mdash; or, if you're feeling optimistic, the Compactness Index &mdash; for 2010. (Urbanized areas reflect development better than fixed metro area boundaries do.) Then they applied the index to the same cities in 2000 to show the change over time.</p></em><br /><br /><!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
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http://archinect.com/news/article/98900460/america-s-oddly-beautiful-suburban-sprawl-photographed-from-the-sky
America's Oddly Beautiful Suburban Sprawl, Photographed From The Sky Alexander Walter2014-04-29T13:51:00-04:00>2014-04-30T18:07:11-04:00<img src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/514x/63/6338ba781046e3ed111a72c6a99b5c2e.jpg" width="514" height="411" border="0" title="" alt="" /><em><p>In a series of photos taken over seven years, now published in a new book called Ciphers, photographer Christoph Gielen shows a different perspective on sprawl, intended to get more people to question typical patterns of development.
"I meant for Ciphers to be provocative at a time when we are witnessing a phenomenal escalation in urban construction ... when entire cities are emerging fully formed in India and China, rather than slowly evolving," says Gielen.</p></em><br /><br /><!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
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http://archinect.com/news/article/97119254/southern-california-not-so-sprawling-after-all
Southern California not so sprawling after all Alexander Walter2014-04-02T18:46:00-04:00>2014-04-02T18:50:47-04:00<img src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/514x/23/23ea080ac9a476d107169220192010a8.jpg" width="514" height="343" border="0" title="" alt="" /><em><p>It may not seem like it when you&rsquo;re stuck in traffic on the 110 Freeway, but Southern California is home to some of the least-sprawling metro areas in the country.
That&rsquo;s according to a study out today from Smart Growth America, which attempted to measure the concept of urban sprawl in 221 metro areas nationwide. The study ranked the Los Angeles, Orange County and Santa Barbara regions in the 25 least-sprawling.</p></em><br /><br /><!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
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http://archinect.com/news/article/93984981/like-it-or-not-most-urban-freeways-are-here-to-stay
Like It or Not, Most Urban Freeways Are Here to Stay Alexander Walter2014-02-20T21:27:00-05:00>2014-02-24T19:20:48-05:00<img src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/514x/b0/b0513743c2c61720624e66543a60dde6.jpg" width="514" height="324" border="0" title="" alt="" /><em><p>So it is that nearly a third of the interstate system consists of stretches through our cities, in the form of loops, spurs and freeways. So it is that American motorists drive nearly twice as many miles on urban interstates as they do the lengthier rural legs. So it is that every metropolis in the country has reorganized itself around these roads, and that they've shaped where we live and work, how we shop, what we eat, and how we pass our time.</p></em><br /><br /><!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
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http://archinect.com/news/article/87936145/every-pool-in-los-angeles-mapped
Every pool in Los Angeles, mapped Amelia Taylor-Hochberg2013-12-03T11:22:00-05:00>2013-12-09T18:32:55-05:00<img src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/514x/my/mye64q4s71jhtg4u.jpg" width="514" height="343" border="0" title="" alt="" /><em><p>Two academics wondered about the number of swimming pools in the L.A. Basin. They got their answer with computer mapping, but [...] along the way, they discovered something more than just the real-world versions of the iconic David Hockney pool utopias. Their project also proved that two non-experts were able to take a massive amount of freely available data to peek into other people's lives.</p></em><br /><br /><!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
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http://archinect.com/news/article/27613281/britain-could-become-los-angeles-style-ghetto-under-planning-reforms-warns-lord-richard-rogers
Britain could become Los Angeles-style ghetto under planning reforms, warns Lord [Richard] Rogers Archinect2011-11-16T00:00:01-05:00>2011-11-16T00:01:40-05:00<img src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/514x/19/19911642320eebc4365e2027680f8309.jpg" width="468" height="310" border="0" title="" alt="" /><em><p>A leading architect has launched a scathing attack on Government planning reforms and warned that large parts of the country could resemble Los Angeles.
Lord [Richard] Rogers of Riverside claims that under the plans Britain's biggest cities could merge into one enormous urban sprawl.</p></em><br /><br /><!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
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http://archinect.com/news/article/18228916/comparison-of-other-major-cities-that-can-fit-inside-la
Comparison of other major cities that can fit inside LA Alexander Walter2011-08-26T12:14:21-04:00>2013-02-11T16:53:10-05:00<p>
Los Angeles has infamously been known for its urban sprawl. A recently released map makes it look like LA could easily swallow several major US cities inside its bloated city limits belly. See the map below and follow the subsequent discussion on <a href="http://www.reddit.com/tb/jug8l" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">reddit.com</a>.</p>
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Directly related: the exhibition <a href="http://www.rethink.la/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Rethink LA: Perspectives on a Future City</a> tries to tackle the homegrown problem, envision ways that could help Los Angeles lose some of the body fat and prepare for a brighter future. Rethink LA is on display for one more week, until September 4, at the A+D Museum, 6032 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles.</p>
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<img alt="" src="http://cdn.archinect.net/images/650x/jq/jqhof847fx17pia4.jpg"></p>